Our work on Supporting People outcomes

Measuring outcomes has become increasingly important under Supporting People. The London Housing Foundation started working in earnest on this in 2005/06. There have been three major aspects to this work:

Developing a technical response to the ODPM's (now Communities and Local Government) consultation paper on the future of Supporting People that explored options for implementing improved outcome monitoring. This response demonstrated that neither crude, nationally dictated outcome measures, nor total local flexibility would provide a system that optimised the benefits that outcome monitoring can bring – to Government, local authorities or homelessness agencies. Instead it proposed steering a middle course between a rigid national system (which could lead to perverse incentives and undermine local ownership) and allowing total flexibility at a local level (which could lead to unmanageable bureaucracy for service providers working in a number of different local authority areas). Download the LondonHousing Foundation's response focussing on outcomes within Supporting People.

The LSL pilot - Throughout 2006 we also worked with three local authorities: Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark and with a range of service providing agencies in those boroughs, to develop an effective approach to outcome measurement for Supporting People that met the needs of both the LAs and the agencies, as well as the guidance received from the CLG. In effect this work has provided the practical implementation for the framework set out in the above consultation response. Click to find out more about the Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham initiative.